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“The guys we’ve added, they know how to play,’’ Rivers said. “Last year, we spent half our practices starting and stopping, and we had very few of those with the second unit, and that’s huge for us.

“I want the second unit to have their own identity. I want them to feel when they come on the floor that they’re going to stretch the lead. Even when they’re on the floor against the first unit that they feel that they can stretch the lead.’’


http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball ... cond_best/

Ya, it's pretty great to look at the roster and realize that the team has Eddie, Marquis, Glen, and Rasheed coming off the bench. Three of those guys are starter/sixth man material for a good number of NBA teams with Eddie being a real spark plug with his shooting.

Deep bench we still have Scals, Williams, Giddens, Walker, Hudson, Allen... that's a very deep team that will be able to sustain injuries and foul trouble.

I saw this and was wondering, is there any confirmation as to whom exactly is on the second unit?

My guess is PG House, SG Daniels, PF Davis, C- Wallace....but my question is mainly in regards to Walker. Has he soldified the role as a backup for Pierce? If so, that could be a huge help....

The second unit in practice yesterday was Daniels, Scal, Baby, House, and Rasheed.

Who do you suppose was the 3 and who was the 4?

...If that remains the second five, it means the third practice unit is Lester, Giddens, Walker, Shelden, and Sweetney.

yea the 2nd unit is very very solid especially this year. i would like raja bell to be traded over to us but maybe im just being greedy. he would be such a big piece of the 2nd unit as a shut down defender/ 3 point marksmen

Gant wrote:The second unit in practice yesterday was Daniels, Scal, Baby, House, and Rasheed.

Who do you suppose was the 3 and who was the 4?

I'm guessing that the second unit looked something like this:

C : Wallace
PF : Big Baby
SF : Scalabrine
SG : House
PG : Daniels

I remember reading in an article that during practice, Daniels played the point 75% of the time while House played the point 25% of the time.

I love this quote by Pierce. I wonder who he is referring to? TA?

“They looked really good,’’ said Pierce. “You’ve got guys who understand the game. You have such a high IQ on the second unit, and that’s something we haven’t had here in a while.

The only question regarding our 2nd Five is Scal vs. Walker/Giddens. But really, you rarely get to see 5 bench players on the floor at the same time. It's not like players 6-10 just replace the entire starting 5. What's nice is that we have our 9-man rotation. Scal, Walker, Giddens and Hudson will get single digit minutes during the season (with many DNP's) and most likely no minutes during the playoffs, unless someone gets injured.

With TA back at practice today (via C's twitter feed), I think he eventually replaces Scal on training camp 2nd unit. Scal has no chance at 3...somebody has to guard Pierce in practice and going against Scal isn't exactly a good test.

The real fight is between Walker and TA for 10th man spot. TA had leg up due to experience factor, but then was slow to return from injury. Haven't heard much about Walker yet...

I think that despite the angst that TA creates in Celtics fans he's still the frontrunner for the 10th man slot behind the four key cogs off the bench. At the very least TA can come in for 2-3 minutes around the quarters and simply focus on being defensive specialist. This would allow Doc to take both Ray and Paul out of the game at the same time. Giddens, Walker (though he might be out again with a bad knee), and Scals will be competing for that spot too... I guess.

the 2nd unit i think is:

eddie backup pg, or a 2 if doc wants to go small
quis as swingman giving ray2 & paul a blow (no homo)
baby and sheed splitting the backup 4 & 5 minutes.
billy, lester da molester, TA, giddens, scal and mr.candace get trash time
yes!!! just right.

honestly i understand the whole first/second unit thing... and guys who practice together play better together... but i wish doc wasnt so adament on always using an entire bench squad at once (usually with one of Ray/Paul left in there)

some of the line ups we can throw out there, resting one or 2 of the big 3 are still better than the majority of starting units in the leage... id love to see him mix line ups a bit more then just first/second unit and occasionally swapping out KG/Sheed and Daniels/Ray or Piere

Rondo/Ray/Scal/Davis/Perkins
House/Daniels/Pierce/Garnett/Sheed

etc etc, id just like to see the 2 or 3 starters on the court with 2 or 3 bench guys, i think you could still really limit the starters minutes, whil actually leaving a really strong team on the floor and not risk losing a lead

That being said, thats just a personal thing.. i know the way Doc tends to coach and im really happy with the bench guys we have, the top 4 (house, daniels, davis, sheed) especially

I could see Doc going with a pure second unit approach..

the benefit of the pure 2nd unit is really that it keeps the starters playing together. you gotta rest them at some point, so its better to rest them together, so they can be in together. that way guys can play off each other and keep a rhythm. but you gotta have a decent bench to do this, which we didn't have last year. now if everyone is healthy i think we should be as deep as any team in the league (even toronto lol).

i hope ta gets anpother chance, when he's on he'd be one of the best 8th men in the league. i know he isn't on often though.

Ehh...we still don't have a single SF on the roster beyond PP and Bill Walker.